Analysis of Gators' play calls shows Florida not that predictable

GAINESVILLE — Steve Addazio said he doesn't let the negativity bother him, and it's a good thing for the Florida offensive coordinator.

Because if Addazio listened to the criticism — from media, fans, on Twitter or the website devoted to his firing — he would see that he's become the scapegoat for all that is wrong with Florida's struggling offense.

The biggest gripe has been play-calling, something fans complain is predictable. But is it?

Yes and no. Like all teams, the Gators have tendencies. They run more than they pass on first and second down, then pass first on third down.

Florida's runs around the ends and rushes up the middle account for 32.2 percent of first-down calls. Crossing passes and throws to the sideline make up 42 percent of third-down calls.

But the Gators pass nearly as much as they rush — 43.2 percent to 50.4 percent, respectively.

For his part, coach Urban Meyer says he's involved in the play-calling and evaluates it each week. It's not that the plays are predictable that is the problem, but that they are not being executed well.

"We don't have a bad play. I don't allow that," Meyer said. "There's no such thing as saying, 'Boy, that's a bad play.' It might look awful because someone doesn't block the right guy or someone doesn't execute, so I go back to efficiency. I evaluate every play call. I do that every week. Is there times where I would have liked to run this as opposed to this? Yes. Iss it a bad play? There's not a bad play that goes into a game. That's poorly executed because we didn't efficiently execute it."